In part one of "Your Complete Content Plan", we discussed Keyword Research. Part two of of our 3-part series concentrates on Content Creation

janlgordon's insight:

I selected this article from Curatti written by Ruchika Sharma because it provides insights on how to improve your content curation plan.

Focus on engaging your audience with a solution and strong call to action.

How to Use Effectively Publish Content

Content should be tailored for your target audience's needs and desires. I agree that you can be successful by appealing to their pressing questions and offering them a compelling solution that they will want to buy into.

Sharma explains the basics of content planning that stands out to your community.

Here's what caught my attention:

Look for previously published content to find at least 5 top keywords for your article. Recommended tools are ahrefs and Buzzsumo.

Define your topics early on and then brainstorm. Answer the where, what, why and how for your readers.

It's important to optimize not only your content, but your images as well. This will then help you to optimize your keyword choices.

Do you want to kick your social media marketing up a notch, but you don’t know where to start? Visual content could be the answer.

janlgordon's insight:

I selected this article from Curatti written by Shane Barker because it provides high quality resources that will help you create a successful social media strategy through visual images.

Save time and money with social media marketing tools.

Visual Content Tools for Social Media

When it comes to attracting an interested audience you need to have the right resources that will enable you to create a professional brand image online. I agree that taking advantage of the right tools will help you become more successful.

Barker recommends the seven best tools for visual marketing. You will be able to attract a larger audience with better conversion rates.

Here's what caught my attention:

If you want to kick your social media marketing up a notch then visuals will help you achieve that. Images perform much better than just plain text according to a Chute and Digiday study.

People use their social networks to engage and to be entertained. Longer posts will garner much less attention than an eye-catching image or video.

With the right tools it is easier than ever to create visual content. Resources include Canva, GIFmaker, WeVideo, and more.

One of the most pressing questions whether you're new to social media or a social media maven is: What's the best way to post information or share content to optimize your reach

Compendium, a content marketing firm conducted a study of more than 200 companies to determine how social media professionals may optimize their engagement with both business-to-business-to-consumer conversations.

What they found is consistent with what Ted Nguyen has experienced and he has demonstrated that he clearly knows what he's doing

Here are some highlights:

"My experience in sharing more than 21,000 tweets and Facebook posts to my more than 82,000 Twitter followers and Facebook friends is consistent with the study’s findings"

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**I recommend the hours between 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Pacific Time) or 1 to 4 p.m. (Eastern Time) are the best times for Twitter and Facebook to optimize social engagement engagement.

**I find that tweets shared earlier in the week do better than those sent later in the week. I also have discovered that Facebook posts do best Wednesday early afternoon.

**if you look at Ted's social shares, they run around the clock. he tries his best to engage with people in real time or near real time.

Hopefully this article and findings will help to provide some clarity so marketers can begin to engage with their customers, in a way that is meaningful to them. Word of mouth spreads like wildfire and you'll want to make sure your business is listening, engaging and responding to their needs before someone else does.

Here are some highlights:

** 76% of marketers feel they know what their customers want yet only 34% have asked customers

**59% of social customers wish to engge businesses for buying insights and customer service respectively, on the contrary only 37% of marketers believe that these services re in demand by their customers

**Take a look at Actual Consumer usage VS marketers' perceptions of consumer usage on the infograph, there is definitely a gap in perception here

mobile social apps

**15% of consumers use them on Linkedin, marketers think it's more like 36. 7%

I like this "vs" one because it is laid out differently than the one in the example. But sometimes it gets a little confusing to understand the comparison they're making so they could have explained better.

There is one thing we do know and that the era of one social network that fits all is gone. The social network tribes are splintering onto different social media platforms because they now have real choice.

What you'll find in the infographic is demographics, monthly visitors on each network, who's on what network

Digital marketing isn't a fad - it's the future. And although it may be a notoriously difficult task to project the future; the most telling variable is what's happening in the present.

Look around you and you'll notice that the world is connected, communicating and constantly clicking.

There's no reason to believe that the demographic cohort that will follow Generation Y, will be any different. In fact, the next generation will be the first that cannot conceive a world that isn't defined and enabled by the Internet, mobile devices and online social networking. Still not convinced?

The following Infographic by ROI Media - http://bit.ly/JOOy40 - presents an overview of the digital landscape, and the changes pointing towards the need for social media marketing in commerce.

Beth Kanter
Thank you for adding me to the wiki and for your kind words, it's greatly appreciated. Yes this is the conversation of the moment so to speak. I'm sure your presentation was amazing. Would love to hear it if you have a replay.

Beth Kanter
Thanks for looking forward to seeing this info. Knowing you, I can imagine that you want to start another scoopit on this topic but it's not necessary because you're already doing a wonderful job covering it now.

This piece is written by Jeff Bullas and I thought about putting it in my topic, content marketing but it occurred to me that infographics are one way to curate content so it's appropiate to post this here. I talk a lot about information overload and this is one way to take data, and information put into a visually attractive format which makes it easier for your audience to comprehend complex ideas in a short amount of time.

Jeff says and we all know this to be true:

"We constantly are attempting to organise, collate and curateinformation that pours at at as from screens in a torrent. Consuming that data is like drinking from a fire hose".

In this article, Jeff gives us research that has proven infographics to be effective and well received by consumers, along with other reasons why they are something to consider for your content marketing campaign.

Here are a few things that caught my attention:

**Recent research from Barbara M. Miller and associates discovered this about “Infographics”

**To summarize, text and images on their own are imperfect ways of communication information and data "combining text and graphics allows communicators to take advantage of each medium’s strengths and diminish each medium’s weaknesses.”

This piece (user chart included) was written and posted by Matt Silverman, contributing editor for Mashable, .

My commentary (I'm personally experiencing amazing results after being on Pinterest for about 4 months).

****Even with all the hooplah surrounding Pinterest, it's important to remember, that Pinterest is only a side dish in your business, payingattention to your main course and how Pinterest supports that is what is key. See article here: http://bit.ly/yXET4P by John Jantsch.

Having said that...........

This user engagement chart is astounding, as you see the rise in Pinterest users in a very short time.

**In my opinion, Pinterest gives you the opportunity to showcase your work without a lot of text anything that gives us a breather in that way is a blessing.

**Images speak a thousand words if you know how to use them properly.

**Showing other sides of you that are consistent with your brand message gives people a chance to see you beyond the text you post on other sites.

**Pinboards like favorite books, homes and spaces, etc. give people points of entry, a connection with you because they identify and like the same things, a great way to start a conversation, have them look to see what you do and who you are.

**Everything we do online tells a story about us, it's our digital identity, Pinterest is a place where you can tell your story in a whole different way.

**Pinterest is also a place where you can relax, fantasize about the wardrope you'd love to have, or the amazing car or cars you want to have. Let's face it, we're all plugged in 24/7, this is a place where you can lighten up and/or market your business all on the same site.

**Pinterest is not only gaining a ton of users, but those users are spending an average of 89 minutes on the site

** Facebook is still leading by 405 minutes along with Tumblr also 89 minutes but it's obvious Pinterest is moving up quickly.

**It's important to know how to use Pinterest to showcase what you do in a subtle but engaging way

Feel free to visit my topic "Pinterest Watch" a collection of articles from branding, case studies, metrics all in one place.

An Infographic published by Mr. Youth - http://bit.ly/zgjXLd , a word of mouth marketing firm, polled 4500 adults to uncover the impact of social media on purchases.

They discovered that social media not only influences brand reputation and PR, but often can lead directly to a sale.

Over 90% of respondents either received or made recommendations to friends and families on Facebook. 65% of these social recommendations directly led to a purchase.

On top of that, 80% of those who received a response to a social media post by a brand made a purchase as a result of that interaction.

With numbers as striking you’d think businesses would be quick to comprehend. Yet according to the study, brands only respond to half of their social media posts, divided almost equally between Facebook and Twitter.

Beth Kanter
I'm glad you liked the article! I love your question, I do think a curated collection of feathers around a particular theme can be turned into a brick. What comes to mind, if you're distilling the comments from the posts (feathers) it's possible that this could evolve into a (brick) research reports, white papers, the possibilities are endless:-)

What comes to mind is that a smashed brick is a lot of feathers .. and that you can lead them back to the brick ... for example, I work with some advocacy folks who have these huge bricks called policy papers. They could tweet key points w/links back to the papers on Twitter. Have them cued up for a month in advance .. as you say the techniques are endless .. What I found most helpful was the objectives and metrics ..

Infographics have become more popular with the rise of social media, fuelling the need for instant results by providing content in bite-size chunks.

janlgordon's insight:

This article is from Mashable and infographic created by Nowsourcing. I chose this piece because it's a continuation of the last scoops I've posted recently about turn data into something businesses can understand and utilize.

Here are some highlights:.

We are all experiencing too much information and unable to process it in a way that is useful for our business needs

**"The use of infographics helps to break down data visually, helping viewers make sense of complex information"

**What's behind the science behind an infograpic's success? Allow an infographic to explain

This piece and infographic was posted by Jason Miller for Marketto. The infographic helps you to examine the elements of a successful B2B social marketing campaign. If you're new to social media or need a refresher, this will be very useful.

Understanding each social network and what your business can gain from each one is essential.

It’s a business-eat-business universe and B2B marketers today must utilize social media channels if they want a chance at surviving alone in the deep recesses of space.

**Businesses that understand the importance of adding social elements to their marketing campaigns empower customers and prospects to share with their networks.

**This peer-to-peer word of mouth messaging is highly trusted and very effective in amplifying the impact of your campaigns.

In the following infographic, we examine the elements of a successful B2B social marketing campaign to help you learn how to make your business move at the speed of light.

"Social media tools have the tremendous power to put you in contact with thousands of people in order to build your online brand you need to know all of the possibilities, as well as how all of your activities are working together.

It's important to be consistent so that each part of your social media network is contributing positively to the brand you are trying to build.

Whether you're selling a product or service, consumers have the platforms to express themselves and take on giant companies if they are dissatisfied. Businesses can't afford to turn away from social business.

**Advertising won't cut it anymore unless your brand demonstrates consistently through actions that it is there to serve consumers through its products and services and by engaging in conversation. Businesses must communicate with their customers where they are: on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and the like.

**If there's a complaint, it should be handled immediately. It's possible to turn a negative into a positive by letting people know that you are there to serve them.

****It's not what you say about your business, it's what your customers are saying about you that counts

**The power of word of mouth is astounding as you can see demonstrated on this infographic and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

I rescooped this from my topic Pinterest Watch, because I feel this infographic really gives you some insight into what's really happening on Pinterest and it's definitely something I want to bring to your attention.

If it makes sense, this site is a great mix in your marketing efforts. Niche sites, especially ones that are visual with less text are becoming more popular everyday and Pinterest is definitely leading the way. Take a quick look at what's happening.......

Intro:

"How fast is Pinterest growing? How many people work there? This infographic lays it out.

**Pinterest has emerged as the runaway social media hit of early 2012. You probably knew that already. But did you know the company just has 12 people? Or that 97% of Pinterest’s Facebook fans are women?

**Lemon.ly, a visual marketing firm, took a deep dive into the data to catalog Pinterest’s stunning rise and produced the infographic below.

**What’s clear is that with 10 million users, Pinterest has already made its mark in terms of web design influence, if nothing else.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.